“If I was a person considering travel over the period up until Christmas, I’d probably be looking at airlines other than Qantas.”Steve Purvinas, federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association
Stupid business thinking by Qantas and the unions involved just gets worse every day. The latest union tactic, which supports the premise that most union bosses have zero understanding of commerce, is to warn passengers away from doing business with their own employer. One that employs thousands of its own members!
“I would think that by October the 28th when the Qantas AGM takes place, you’re likely to see full-day stoppages,” said Steve Purvinas, the federal secretary of the Australian Licensed Aircraft Engineers Association.
“If I was a person considering travel over the period up until Christmas, I’d probably be looking at airlines other than Qantas,” he said. “If I was a passenger, I wouldn’t be purchasing a ticket with them at this stage.”
As a platinum frequent flyer with Qantas, I have been dismayed at the decline in service standards under the current CEO, Alan Joyce. Personally, I consider that Alan Joyce has no true understanding of what is really happening inside the cabins of his aircraft. None, whatsoever. (If he wants some perspective and legitimate, objective, observed feedback on the performance of his inflight staff he’s welcome to meet with me.)
Be warned of my bias towards having Australian trained pilots and aircraft engineers. I want the best educated and trained people managing the flying cylinder of which I spend around two days a week inside. I am a supporter of Qantas Pilots.
However, if Purvinas thinks that this will support his negotiation strategy he’s sadly mistaken. And, if this quote in The Australian newspaper accurately relects the attitude of his own members towards Qantas, the company that employs them and pays their wages, then Qantas needs to re-evaluate current employment processes, training and education. This group of people don’t want to work at Qantas. So, let them go and find a job they will be happier in.
Why do CEOs become so disconnected with the people on the frontline doing the real work? Alan Joyce needs to understand that Qantas is not Jetstar and learn from the mistakes of another import to Australia decades ago, Al Chainsaw Dunlap. Short term cost-cutting does not grow your business long-term. You grow long-lived business success by building upon your strengths, not solely cutting costs to the bone.
And, Purvinas would do well to watch Lion King and reason that acting like Scar will not make him a long-lived leader of anything worthwhile.
Couldn’t agree with you more Ric. There are a number of key issues in today’s Industrial Relations environment that employers continue to fail to address. The key one being to properly manage the relationship they have with the unions. All too often employers chose to either capitulate to any demand, or try to go toe to toe with them. On both accounts they get “done over” very easily.
Unions are the members in the workplace. Your very own employees who are organised and activated to work against you when called upon by officials who have no true economic or business knowledge. They are focused purely on achieving an outcome sufficient enough to enable them to recruit new members thus increasing their own revenue. Plain and Simple.
If people were too research the top ranking union officials you will see that most have had no other job other than within the movement. So how does that put them in a position to comment on an employers business, or indeed the economy, environment, the list goes on…..
The second point that continually puts employers on the backfoot is their reliance on employer associations who provide outdated industry information, and who are rapidly becoming equally as bad as unions….But that is a rant for another day….
The easiest way to defeat a union and to truly mitigate the impact they have on your business is to learn to communicate better with your staff than they do…But first they need to learn how the unions work, and the media and lawyers can’t teach employers that……
Very good points, Michael.
Employers should not aggressively fight the unions assuming everything they do is wrong.
Rather, communicate exceptionally well and develop extremely strong relationships with your employees.
Rgds,
Ric
As a platinum flyer as well, I agree that service on Qantas could be improved, however that isn’t the key platform of the unions position, so should be kept separate (in my view). Qantas, notwithstanding their poor service at times, should be allowed to run their business in the way they see fit.
Daniel
http://www.spinspun.com.au
Thanks for your comments Daniel.
I was not reflecting the level of service to the dispute but adding it for comment balance.
That is to say that both sides have been poor in their leadership and approach to the airline of which I am jealously proud.
My simple thinking is that Joyce is running Qantas as if it was Jetstar. It is not.
And, as usual, the unions are wanting everything for nothing.
There is a better way to collaboratively work together to ensure this Australian icon continues to be the envy of other airline operators around the world.
Rgds,
Ric